How Often Do You Visit Your Library?

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
It is the ultimate in a place full of people yet you can hear a pin drop. Good therapy for all that ills you. Just walking through the aisles full of books, magazines, newspapers, etc. offering one insights never experienced before. Plus it gets you out of your house!!
 

I used to a lot, don’t nowadays. There is an RV parked in the parking lot that a homeless guy lives in. To enter the main doors to the library, have to walk around the homeless guy living there. Inside the library it has lots of homeless people using the computers hours at a time. Yes, they have the same rights as everyone else, but I’m really uncomfortable.
 
Haven't been to the public library in a couple years. But I do have a well stocked library in my apartment building, and it's on my floor .... a three minute walk as opposed to a three mile drive. :)
Also I've been making use of my Kindle lately since I have Prime membership. Downloading books is my favorite source for book reading now, as I can adjust the print size for my sorry old eyes.
 

I used to go to the public library all the time. Nowadays, not so much. Debbie I agree about the homeless. I work downtown and the library is pretty much a hangout. I am tired of all the panhandling.
Several times I wanted to do research at a desktop and didn't want to use my one at work so I thought the library would be perfect. Every time I tried this, the desktops were all in use.

In the small town where I live, they built a new library. All high tech, all conference rooms, chairs with speakers in them to listen to your music. I didn't see many actual books. I just can't relate to going to the library like I used to. I don't like reading from a screen. Desktop, phone, kindle, or whatever. It makes my eyes really tired. Much more tired than reading from a book. I'll stick with them. You can go to a garage sale and get a ton of books for not much.
 
A couple of times a month , until I retired 2 summers ago...and haven't been since..really for a couple of reasons. One first and foremost our local library became an IT hub, with less and less space for books, and hardly ever new books ...but with 3/4's of the huge area once filled wall to wall with thousands , of reading material, now replaced with computers and the noisiest place outside of a Mall, with the clatter of computers and the ''silence rule' completely relaxed ..., and secondly now , I find it cheaper to buy a book online, either in paper version or electronically and own it ..than it would cost me to drive to the library and borrow a book for a limited time...
 
hollydolly said:
A couple of times a month , until I retired 2 summers ago...and haven't been since..really for a couple of reasons. One first and foremost our local library became an IT hub, with less and less space for books, and hardly ever new books ...but with 3/4's of the huge area once filled wall to wall with thousands , of reading material, now replaced with computers and the noisiest place outside of a Mall, with the clatter of computers and the ''silence rule' completely relaxed ..., and secondly now , I find it cheaper to buy a book online, either in paper version or electronically and own it ..than it would cost me to drive to the library and borrow a book for a limited time...
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The world of the computer may make our library a thing of the past. As a member we can log onto the states computer and electronic check out a book, read it on line. It opened a new world of reading for me.
 
When we're home, I go 2-4 times a month, depending on how many books I take out at a time.

I also take the little ones to story time occasionally.

Our library has the check-out-a-dog program. There's a big old golden there who's just DYING to be read to. I always see a child on the floor with a book and the dog. Everybody's happy......
 
Uptosnuff said:
I used to go to the public library all the time. Nowadays, not so much. Debbie I agree about the homeless. I work downtown and the library is pretty much a hangout. I am tired of all the panhandling.
Several times I wanted to do research at a desktop and didn't want to use my one at work so I thought the library would be perfect. Every time I tried this, the desktops were all in use.

In the small town where I live, they built a new library. All high tech, all conference rooms, chairs with speakers in them to listen to your music. I didn't see many actual books. I just can't relate to going to the library like I used to. I don't like reading from a screen. Desktop, phone, kindle, or whatever. It makes my eyes really tired. Much more tired than reading from a book. I'll stick with them. You can go to a garage sale and get a ton of books for not much.
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I understand the tired eye thing about reading from the computer, my eyes are about the only part on my body that is not worn out. I use a Samsung Chrome Book and lug it every where, even to bed. lol
 
Our local library has been a horror for decades and is in the process of being torn down and rebuilt. I do take my mom to a non local library cuz she loves to read so much, but we don't go often as it's a half hour away by car. She takes book out at the local senior center library.
 
debbie in seattle said:
I used to a lot, don’t nowadays. There is an RV parked in the parking lot that a homeless guy lives in. To enter the main doors to the library, have to walk around the homeless guy living there. Inside the library it has lots of homeless people using the computers hours at a time. Yes, they have the same rights as everyone else, but I’m really uncomfortable.
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The homeless (panhandlers} are a problem and young people who use the library as a hangout, fights and one stabbing. They now have police present.
 
I go to the library about once every five years to do research, use the newspaper archive, special collections, etc...

The main library has gradually changed direction and now it is more of a learning/media center with less emphasis on books and more emphasis on the internet.
 
I used to go fairly often, especially when I still had my Vespa. There was something about riding my scooter to the library that rang some kind of internal chime. But then they stopped carrying the magazines that I liked to read, and the place got increasingly noisy. When they dropped my favorite magazines due to "lack of funds", I offered to buy the subscriptions myself and have the magazines delivered to the library. I want to read the magazines, but I don't want to own them or deal with the guilt of simply throwing them away.
Sounds, simple doesn't it. Well, I was informed that "such things" were not allowed.
So now I do the bulk of my reading on a kindle where it is also much easier on my eyes.
 
Two or three times a month. Local libraries well supported with taxes & bond issues. Modernized with computer pool & online catalogs, but in no way intimidating. Have an interlibrary loan system for when the book you want isn’t on the shelves. They have lots of programs for youth of all ages. One of the things I find so encouraging is always seeing parents bringing in their children & going out with armloads of books. Grew up with a small library a block from home, and the librarian paid me 25 cents an hour to help her shelve books. My first job!
 
I visit mine almost every day or at least several times a week via my computer and a universal library service called Overdrive. I download books to my Kindle and can have as many as 15 books checked out to me at any one time. I read lots of off-beat subjects and keep watch for new and interesting authors and books. My library has a huge inventory of books on any subject, many authors. I can search by subject or author or a feature I love- 'show me books like .....'

Why go every day The web site shows 'new issues' and 'coming soons' and have a 'hold' feature that will automatically check the book out to me when it becomes available They also have a 'wish list' which I use as a reminder of things for the future. I can also search by NY Times Best Seller List or Book Awards or Best books of a particular year. etc.

All I need is my library card. In my area, the card is free to all who live in that particular county. It required a single trip to a branch library in person with proof that I actually live there (a utility bill in my name).

I go a little crazy unless I know I have something to read with me at all times. My Kindle goes into my purse whenever I leave the house and otherwise lives on my bedside table
 
Aunt Bea said:
I go to the library about once every five years to do research, use the newspaper archive, special collections, etc...

The main library has gradually changed direction and now it is more of a learning/media center with less emphasis on books and more emphasis on the internet.
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In our local libraries they don't have the facilities for archive searches etc.. for that we have to go into a specific library in London... . I spent a whole year practically living in the library searching newspaper archives at one time..I absolutely loved that part of my job.. , but I did have to travel into London to do it..
 
Once or twice a month to look at magazines that I am not interested in subscribing to.

I have a whole passel of books at home, some over a century old.
 
gennie said:
I visit mine almost every day or at least several times a week via my computer and a universal library service called Overdrive. I download books to my Kindle and can have as many as 15 books checked out to me at any one time.
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Woohoo! Another Overdrive user! I tell everyone about it. They don't usually listen, and they don't know what they're missing.

I'm on my sixth Kindle. I've always said it has always been within arm's reach for me. I love to read, and the library never had the books I wanted.

The library has always been my favorite place in the whole world. My dad always took me when I was a child, and that is a wonderful memory. I'd get huge stacks of books there. Libraries are amazing places.
 
Now, never. For the years I worked in a new/used bookstore, I had it all in the store. After that, once a month or so, took the grands and got them started. Volunteered as a Friend of the Library.

But after the Internet, nothing. To be honest I can't really concentrate well when I read. Mind wanders....
 
A2ZGrammie said:
Woohoo! Another Overdrive user! I tell everyone about it. They don't usually listen, and they don't know what they're missing.

I'm on my sixth Kindle. I've always said it has always been within arm's reach for me. I love to read, and the library never had the books I wanted.

The library has always been my favorite place in the whole world. My dad always took me when I was a child, and that is a wonderful memory. I'd get huge stacks of books there. Libraries are amazing places.
Click to expand...
Is that like Hoopla? I can watch movies and books from my library at that site.
 
A2ZGrammie said:
Woohoo! Another Overdrive user! I tell everyone about it. They don't usually listen, and they don't know what they're missing.

I'm on my sixth Kindle. I've always said it has always been within arm's reach for me. I love to read, and the library never had the books I wanted.

The library has always been my favorite place in the whole world. My dad always took me when I was a child, and that is a wonderful memory. I'd get huge stacks of books there. Libraries are amazing places.
Click to expand...

:) We must be soul mates. Growing up I lived within walking distance of a very large library and that was when it was safe for even very young girls to walk alone. It was my favorite haunt. Remained so until I married and moved away.

Whenever I moved, getting a library card was right behind getting the power and phone connected. I have even taken my lease or purchase agreement for resident verification rather than wait for a utility bill.

I think of Overdrive as my BFF.
 

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